One Acre Fund is a newborn organization with big dreams.
Our mission is to empower chronically hungry farm families in East Africa to permanently lift themselves out of hunger and poverty.
One Acre Fund is a 501c3 non-profit organization. We began our demonstration work this January 2006 with 40 farm families, and are currently serving 2,000 farm families. Over the next five years we will prove a model for self-sustaining, market-based hunger elimination that we hope to replicate with a wide variety of NGOs and private food companies.
Our Values
- We don't give handouts - we empower permanent life-change. Lasting change must rely on the poor themselves.
- We provide a solution that is realistic for the extreme poor - our solution includes tools, training, and market access - making it realistic for someone starting from nothing to grow for high-value markets.
- We must dream big - limitless human need demands an ambitious response. 80% of the
extreme poor in the world are farmers, and we must aggressively scale to meet demanding
milestones.
- We must remain 100% accountable to both our biggest donors and our littlest children, measured by hard operational metrics that are reported, good and bad, to stakeholders. If we are not improving the lives of children, we are failing, and must find a way to improve.
Our Contact Information
- andrew.youn@oneacrefund.org - Andrew Youn, Founder
- matthewf@oneacrefund.org - Matt Forti, US board chair
- US address: One Acre Fund, 2147 Sherman Ave #1, Evanston IL, 60201
- Kenya address: P.O. BOX 482 - 50200 Bungoma, KENYA
- Kenya phone: +254 (0)73-639-2262
Our Team
Andrew Youn is the founder of One Acre Fund. He graduated magna cum laude with two departmental awards from Yale, worked as a management consultant in Boston, and graduated in 2006 with a MBA from Kellogg School of Management. He has managerial experience in helping to scale community-based AIDS treatment in South Africa, working for Dr. John Sargent and Dr. Ernest Darkoh.
John Gachunga is the field director of One Acre Fund. A native Kenyan, he graduated with an accounting degree and held a managerial post at a microfinance institution, Equity Bank, before joining our operations. He is responsible for all operations, including the successful launch of our demonstration work.
Field staff: One Acre Fund also employs one horticulture manager, one child health manager, and one field manager who oversees six field officers. We draw many of our staff from the farmers that we work with.
Honorary Advisory Board
Larry and Carol Levy founded Levy Restaurants, which grew from a single family restaurant in 1978 to pioneer and lead the market for premium sports and entertainment food service. Levy Restaurants has been recognized as one of America's fastest growing companies in its industry, and is widely admired for its empahsis on family and passion for excellent food.
Michael Krasny is the founder of CDW, which he grew from the sale of a $3 computer in 1982, to a publicly-traded industry leader in computer sales to business, government, and education. CDW is a Fortune 500 company, and extensively honored for its workplace practices and community involvement.
Our Board
Matt Forti (Board Chair), The Bridgespan Group
Taira Hall, Citigroup
Amy Hsiao, Clorox
Diana Lee, Broad Resident: Oakland Unified School District
Jason Maga, Amtrak
Bhavan Suri, Kellogg School of Management
Paul Wormley, Hadley Capital
John Yi, Crowson Technology LLC
James Wesner
Meredith Wilson
Anne Marie Burgoyne
Chris Ashley
Working Relationships
One Acre Fund relies heavily on the advice of a deep core of industry leaders, whose collective experience and insight have enabled us to enjoy some early success. We benefit from the technical advice of the Kenya Horticultural Development Project, Horticultural Crop Development Authority, Kenya Business Development Services, and Mace Foods. We draw on advice from major agricultural organizations (e.g., ACDI-VOCA, Farm Inputs Promotions Services, KickStart, International Development Enterprises), a top-five microfinance institution (Opportunity International), social entrepreneurship organizations (Echoing Green, Rainer Arnhold), and leading academics (Kellogg School of Management, MIT, and Columbia University).
Recent Performance Reports and Audited Financial Statements
Spring 2007 Performance Report and Full Year 2006 Audited Financial Statements
Our Spring 2007 Performance Report details our accomplishments from November 2006 through April 2007. Learn about One Acre Fund's progress in scaling to hundreds of families, increasing farm income, and covering our program costs. We also chronicle the stories of some of our families in a brand new two-page photo gallery, and take a look at a complete list of our donors and supporters, who have made a personal commitment to ending hunger.
Fall 2007 Performance Report
This report details our accomplishments from May 2007 through October 2007. A few key highlights:
- Doubled program size to 600 farm families, serving more than 2000 children
- Completed our third harvest, increasing take-home farm income by 100%, with 97% of farmers successfully repaying program fees
- Covered 15% of our field costs through farmer repayments, a percentage which will increase over time
